Mutterings of a Mad Woman

It started when my parents let me spray paint a tombstone on the concrete wall of our basement for my Grade 4 Halloween party.

It was my first real Halloween party, and I wanted it to be great. I constructed a haunted house the length of the basement and lead people through dangling, slimy snakes hanging from the ceiling - just one example of the many forms and obstacles waiting for them in the shadow. I hadn't gotten over my fear of the dark, and I was deathly afraid of being in the basement alone (never mind with the lights off), but to make sure I could see well enough to safely guide each guest one by one through the haunted space, I sat alone in the pitch black basement for 20 minutes before the party goers even started to arrive.